Chapter Twenty-Eight
Xavi
“Istill can’t believe Joe’s now a married man.” Lulu nuzzled his nose against Xavi’s neck, then dipped out his tongue and licked his skin.
Xavi squirmed, then leaned in for more. “Yeah, it’s wild, isn’t it? Buffalo’s most notorious party boy.”
“Hey! That’s me, oso.”
“The fuck it is,” Xavi hummed, pulling Lulu closer against his side. “Your partying days are over, mano. I’ll have you locked down, barefoot, and attached to my cock every Saturday night from now on.”
“Promise?” Lulu squealed, scooting even closer on the king-size bed, like he wanted to disappear inside Xavi and live there forever.
“You better fucking believe that’s a promise, baby,” Xavi near-growled, and like always, this newfound possessiveness overwhelmed him, but not in a bad way.
Only good. He was allowed to be possessive now.
Lulu was his fucking boyfriend. His. That brought forward unprecedented feelings in Xavi, and images of things he suddenly wanted for himself, things that were now within reach. “You ever thought about it?”
“What?”
“Getting married?”
“You askin’?” Lulu stuck out his tongue, and Xavi nearly blurted, ‘What if I were?’ “I don’t know,” Lulu frowned. “Not exactly like I had the best role model, you know?”
“You’re not him.”
“I know. Maybe if the right person asked. Yeah, then maybe I would.” There was a rare wistfulness in Lulu’s voice that told Xavi he wasn’t the only one with secret dreams. That he wasn’t the only one perhaps afraid to voice them, afraid they’d pulverize and disappear right in front of him.
Or at least, Xavi used to feel that way, but not so much anymore.
“Yeah, me too.” Xavi smiled, brushing a stray lock of hair out of Lulu’s eyes.
Lulu shivered, then slung his thigh over Xavi’s stomach, his skin hot and smooth.
They were both only in their boxer briefs, Xavi’s body on full display in the soft glow from the night lamps.
Lulu’s fingers wove through Xavi’s chest hair, then circled his nipples teasingly.
A hiss fell from Xavi’s lips, then Lulu’s hand disappeared, and he stretched on the crisp white sheets, his golden skin glowing.
“It was beautiful, wasn’t it?” Lulu smiled, his eyes swimming with fatigue. “The wedding.”
“It absolutely was. Beautiful.”
Lulu chuckled lowly. “I can’t believe how much he cried, though.”
“Joe? Nah, I always knew he had it in him.”
“Yeah, him too. No, I meant Noah. The way he almost collapsed at the end of the aisle.”
“I know. That was… relief. Like pure fucking relief.”
“Yeah.” Lulu paused, then leaned in, his lips hovering against Xavi’s. “You got all misty-eyed too, big guy.”
“The hell I did,” Xavi grunted, then closed the gap between them, kissing Lulu fast and hard.
“You so did, but that’s okay, oso. We all fucking cried. The entire wedding was one long telenovela,” Lulu snorted. “Even Monroe and Aidan had to pretend they suddenly got acute allergies. Fucking gold.”
“Yeah, it was.” Xavi brushed his lips back and forth against Lulu’s, and Lulu hummed, his body emanating heat and building lust. Thrusting his hips forward, Lulu’s fingers dug into Xavi’s shoulder, almost like he had to steady himself, too overcome with desire.
Xavi thrust back, their movements so in sync by now, just like they’d been all their lives without noticing, a silent push and pull, a careful touch here and there, a few stolen looks all leading to this one moment.
Xavi realized every defining moment for the past two decades had been tied to Lulu in one way or another, from adolescence into adulthood.
From friendship to now being lovers, boyfriends.
Lulu kissed along Xavi’s shoulder, his tongue teasing the skin, tracing the ragged scars and the outline of his tattoos.
“Tell me about your tattoos,” Lulu panted, his breath hot and moist.
“Which ones?” Xavi squirmed as Lulu sucked a particularly sensitive scar into his warm mouth.
“Fuuuck,” he hissed. “Fuck, baby, that’s nice.
” It was. Xavi wasn’t lying. Lulu making love to Xavi’s scars—the most vulnerable parts of him—with his mouth, was fucking everything.
It was cathartic, almost, like a sacred act, Lulu’s lips absolving Xavi from his painful past.
“Doesn’t matter. All of them, any of them.” Lulu leaned up on his elbow, then his gaze dipped to the skin just below Xavi’s clavicle. “This one.” Lulu’s fingers whispered against the lumpy skin covered in black ink. “Tell me about this one.”
Xavi sucked in a breath. The tattoo portrayed two large angel wings.
The right wing had been devastated by flames, torn apart, the feathers burned into ashes.
Only the outline was left—the skeleton—like a distant, painful memory.
You could only tell it was a wing, really, because it was accompanied by the other perfect one on Xavi’s left side, untouched by the fire.
The feathers were intact, reaching all the way across the left side of Xavi’s chest, the ends wrapped around his pec, like they almost cradled his heart.
“It’s… they’re—” Xavi’s voice broke, but Lulu was there instantly, offering Xavi his.
“It’s him, isn’t it? Your papi?”
“Sí, mi alma.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah?” Xavi turned his head toward Lulu’s, his eyes connecting with two pools of warmth.
“Sí. The way the fire tried to take him away from you, but his soul stayed behind, forever wrapped around yours. Para siempre.”
Xavi’s chest squeezed, his heart racing, because that had been his exact intention when he’d gotten the tattoo when he was twenty-one.
“I love it.” Lulu smiled, a fire growing in his eyes. “I love the man it belongs to. Your body, your skin, your precious heart, Xavi. A heart that loves me with such purity and fierceness.”
“I do. I do love you like that. Always.”
Leaning in, Lulu began trailing kisses along the outline of the broken wing.
Xavi closed his eyes, his head melting into the softness of the pillow, as his chest surged upwards, chasing Lulu’s lips.
Then he felt it. A light chuckle penetrated his skin like the needle once had, as Lulu’s kisses blended with the ink, with the past, and with the remnants of pain.
“What?” Xavi gritted, Lulu’s touch bordering on unbearable. Lulu’s hand moved down Xavi’s body lazily until it reached the growing bulge in Xavi’s briefs. Cupping Xavi’s length, Lulu’s voice came out deep and guttural when he spoke.
“You wanna play, oso? You wanna play with me?”
“Depends on what you’ve got in mind.” Xavi sucked in a clipped breath. Who the fuck was he kidding? He was going to let Lulu do anything he wanted. Anything that Lulu’s wild mind could conjure up.
“I brought something.” Lulu’s lips continued to tickle Xavi’s skin while his fingers teased Xavi’s hard-on through the cotton fabric. “A little, or not so little something, to spice up our road trip.”
“Fuck, what did you do?” Xavi thrust his hips upward. He was so fucking hard. As inappropriate as it was, he’d been sporting a semi throughout most of the wedding, the sight of Lulu in that tight groomsman suit doing unspeakable things to Xavi.
“You’ll see. Or feel it,” Lulu snorted, and then he was gone, leaving Xavi panting on the bed, his balls aching painfully.
Sitting up, resting on his elbows, Xavi watched Lulu disappear into the bathroom, his perky ass cheeks bouncing behind the stretched fabric of his briefs.
Rubbing along his cock, Xavi gave it a few strokes, the fabric already wet and sticky in places.
He couldn’t help smiling to himself as he thought about how he’d dreaded this trip, and now he never wanted it to end.
He just wanted to stay in this bubble with Lulu, where it was just the two of them.
Then Lulu was back, his curls bobbing around his lovely face, his eyes gleaming with trouble and desire, his hands hidden behind his back. He was all naked now, losing the briefs somewhere on the way, his cock standing out hard and proud, the cockhead glistening.
“What’s with the look?” Xavi tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing. Just keep an open mind, okay? Or an open ass,” Lulu snorted.
“Oh, Jesus.”
“You can pray all you want, oso. Won’t make no difference. Tonight you’re mine.” Heat flared in Lulu’s eyes as he moved closer, his hands still tucked behind his back. When he reached the bed, Lulu rested his knee against the mattress, then laughed as he leaned closer. “Close your eyes, amor.”
“Fuck no!”
“Pleaaase.” Lulu batted his eyelashes. “I’ll be gentle, I promise.
” His face sobered, then within seconds, Lulu cracked up all over again.
“No, I’m serious. I think you’ll like it.
” And then Lulu, of course, had to go and speak those magic words that left Xavi completely in his power, all restraint going out the window. “Trust me, oso.”
Trust. He trusted Lulu more than anything. Nodding carefully, Xavi licked his lips. “Show me.”
Smiling, Lulu removed his one hand from behind his back and giggled when he dropped the packet of lube on the mattress between them.
A moan fell from Xavi’s lips, and his hole clenched.
Was Lulu going to fuck him? Fuck, he hoped so.
He really wanted him to. Being inside Lulu was everything, and Xavi wanted to feel it too.
What it felt like to have another man’s cock, Lulu’s cock, inside him.
“Show me everything.” Xavi nodded at Lulu’s other hand, still hidden behind his back.
Digging his teeth into his bottom lip, Lulu held his other hand forward, his fingers wrapped around something that was definitely not a condom.
Blinking his eyes, it took Xavi’s brain a few seconds to fathom what it was that was tightly clasped in Lulu’s hand.
Then equal parts heat and embarrassment flashed through Xavi.
“Wh—”